Intellectual Property and Openness: A Research Perspective and Agenda

Abstract

This chapter considers the various methodologies used and arguments advanced by scholarship which employs an openness paradigm to examine intellectual property (IP), specifically in copyright and patent law. It presents the key attributes of openness, as developed in scholarly literature and research practices. It highlights the underpinning justifications for openness which include social justice imperatives, sustainable development, human development, and human rights, with emphasis on the development of human rights framing. It reprises topical aspects that remain on the normative agenda to inform ongoing and future scholarship founded on international and national perspectives or developmental agendas. Drawing from examples of recent research, it explores how research questions related to copyright and patents have been cast from the standpoint of openness and closes by envisaging some ways in which such scholarship may be advanced methodologically and substantively.